The European Central Bank has stepped up pressure on Italian banks to offload debts that turned sour during the country’s recession which ended in 2014.

Earlier this week, Italy’s biggest retail bank Intesa Sanpaolo said it would halve its impaired loan burden under a new four-year plan, while the country’s third largest lender Banco BPM stepped up its target for shedding bad debts by 5 billion euros.

UBI Banca, Italy’s fourth biggest bank by market value, reported a 2017 net profit of 690.6 million euros, including results from the three small rivals it bought last year.

This compares with a loss of 830.2 million euros on a standalone basis a year earlier.

The bank said its fully-loaded CET1 ratio - an indicator of financial strength - stood at 11.43 percent, including a planned dividend payout of 0.11 euros per share. ($1 = 0.8144 euros) (Reporting by Stephen Jewkes. Editing by Jane Merriman)